The indispensable Machado de Assis: Brás Cubas and the form of fictional situations

Abstract

According to Antonio Candido, literature is indispensable to humanity and can therefore be regarded as a human right. Building on this premise, Candido argues that reality is inherently contradictory and that literature gives artistic form to contradiction, thereby contributing to the humanization of its readers. In this article, we propose the existence of a literary form in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas whose function is to draw readers into a contradictory fictional situation whose resolution may lead to an ethical hermeneutics. By analyzing this form, we argue that the work of the Afro-Brazilian civil servant Machado de Assis is indispensable to readers because it has the potential to immerse them in fictional situations with contradictory social implications. Finally, we suggest that this literary form may also be identified in other Brazilian novels whose protagonists belong to the same landowning elite as Brás Cubas.